The story
UK Commercial Property Trust was established in 2006 in Guernsey, prior to the introduction of REIT legislation in 2007, which made on-shore property investment companies more tax-efficient. It acquired its initial portfolio of properties from Phoenix & London Assurance/Phoenix Life & Pensions Limited in 2007 for £503.6m; the portfolio was then yielding under 5%.
Having launched near the top of the market, following the market downturn in 2007–2008, a merger with F&C Commercial Property Trust, a fellow FTSE 250 property company was proposed in 2010. This was narrowly rejected by 50.07% of shareholders.
The company changed its name from UK Commercial Property Trust to UK Commercial Property REIT in 2022.
In February 2024, the company announced it had reached a merger agreement with Tritax Big Box REIT. It was reported that the combined business was likely be included in the FTSE 100 Index with a valuation of £4 billion. The transaction received shareholder approval on 2 May 2024, allowing it to proceed to completion.
From Wikipedia’s article on UK Commercial Property REIT, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3